A Price To Be Paid
by Shimegami
Summary: Michelangelo isn't exactly happy with his lot in life.  But when the youngest turtle is kidnapped, the turtles must reevalute their life, their roles, and their bonds between each other.  Eventual yaoislash.
1. Chapter 1

-1So, I am like totally a noob at turtles, but hey! Everyone's gotta start somewhere, right? This story is probably clichéd through the roof, but that's what makes it _cool_.

Disclaimer: I don't own the turtle boys, as much as I wished I did.

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_So long as we have a place we can be together…_

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Mikey has always known he was a little different than his brothers. And for many years, he was fine with that.

His brothers were all serious - too serious, too often. It seems like they forget everything around them at times, and would drown themselves in their respective bad habits if they weren't pulled out of it.

During those times, all he had to do was give an item a little dose of "Mikey love", or annoy one of his brothers to breaking point. The results weren't pleasant for Mikey, but they worked. His brothers stopped being serious and focused, if only for a few short minutes.

Now, if only he could find a way to give himself the same type of break. If only he could find a way to act serious for a day, to just relax and be himself without having the other turtles act like he was sick or trying to get a favor. A day where he wouldn't have to pull an idiotic prank, just so his brothers would stop being _serious_.

And yet, that was so impossible a dream that he'd forgotten what being himself was like.

---

"Mikey! Get _up_!!" A hand applied forcibly to the back of his head enforced the verbal command.

"Ow!!" Cracking his eyes opened, Michelangelo found himself looking up at a very irritated Raphael. Great. He'd overslept again.

So much for his dream of proving himself an asset to the family.

"Come on, dumbass, you've been asleep for half the morning! If you don't get up right now, you'll be late for practice, and I ain't covering you this time!" With that, Raphael turned and stomped out of his room, grumping about baby brothers.

_Yeah, love you too big brother_, he thought with a snort as he pulled himself out of bed and glanced towards his clock. He never set the alarm - why should he? His brothers always got him up, and the few times he'd tried to wake himself up, he'd either ended up snoozing the alarm for two hours, or having his brothers stare at him like he was alien.

Mikey? Get up on time? Heaven forbid it be anything but a pod person.

The clock told him all he needed to know - Raph had been lenient this morning, and had woken him up at a decent time to get ready before practice. Which meant bathroom time. Yes!

As he was taking care of morning business in the bathroom, Michelangelo paused for a moment, studying his reflection in the mirror. He tried copying one of his brother's stern frowns, but all that ended up reflecting in the mirror was a mad pout, which turned into a grimace. Not cool at all.

With a sigh, he continued on with his day. There was no way to change the inevitable. He would always be the baby brother, the joking, not-serious brother.

If only he could change the past, go back to his old self and tell him to be serious, to pay attention to his lessons and not be a goof-off…

Well, it probably wasn't the best idea. Who knew how his brothers would end up then, with no one to make sure they didn't take themselves too seriously.

And yet, he wished it could be true - for at least he could have been himself, then. Maybe.

---

Mikey was brooding - that much was obvious.

Raphael had not been a big brother for fourteen years now without learning how to read his youngest brother's emotions. It was easy to see, in the way Michelangelo spaced out instead of playing tricks, in the way that he performed his katas absent-mindedly instead of lazily. He was thinking, and not on a new prank, because there were no random smiles or snickers as Mikey thought out his plan.

No, Mikey was disturbed by something, and therefore brooding on it.

And this worried Raph.

He always had considered Mikey _his_ little brother. Sure, Mikey was everyone's baby brother - he was the reason the three elder turtles trained so hard. They had all wanted to make sure they were capable of taking care of Mikey, so that nothing would befall the cheerful and innocent turtle.

But still Raph had always considered Mikey _his_ - the only turtle that could calm Raph out of one of his bad rages with just a smile or silly prank. Sure, it often made Raph want to kill him, but at the same time it made him precious. The baby brother that only Raph could mess with - if anyone else dared hurt Mikey, there'd be hell to pay.

He knew that Mikey's pranks were actually good for the team. It kept them on their feet, and yet relaxed them at the same time. They all forgot to be ninjas in those moments - and they were better off for it.

So, Mikey brooding was a big thing. Mikey didn't brood, unless something was seriously wrong. But what could be wrong? Raphael didn't know of anything that could be worrying his little brother.

And that, somehow, made Raphael feel even more worried about it.

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Annoying. Annoying annoying annoying.

Michelangelo let those words flow through him, becoming energy to do his kata. Though he wasn't paying as much attention as he should to the moves, the anger those words caused let him put as much strength behind his punches and kicks as any of Raphael's.

He knew the others had recognized his mind wasn't as on practicing as it should be, but he was Michelangelo. It was a rare day when he _did_ concentrate on practice. They wouldn't think anything of it, at least not during morning katas. Maybe later in the day - Raph was looking at him oddly from time to time, and Raph was the hardest one to hide his feelings from - but that would be later.

And Mikey fully intended on _not_ being in the lair for the "later".

He had decided that enough was enough - he was going to go out and do what _Michelangelo_ wanted for a day. He was going to go out, damn the consequences.

In out words, Michelangelo was going to do what he had termed "pulling a Raph", and would spend the entire day and night out of the lair.

It would be bitter, but…

He clenched his teeth as Leonardo rapped out another sharp reprimand at him for not performing at his best.

It would be far, far better than here.

---

After morning practice was over, Michelangelo threw a quick lunch together for his brothers - mad as he was with their treatment of him, there was no way he'd let them in the kitchen unsupervised - and pretended to hide away in his room with his sketchpad.

In reality, he turned on the music in his room, waited until his brothers and Master Splinter had no eyes on the exit, then trotted out the door without looking back.

While he didn't go topside nearly as often as, say, Raphael or Leonardo, he knew his way around the city quite well. And there was a place he frequented often when he needed to get a little air.

It was a skyscraper, with a little roof garden on top of it. It was taller than the other buildings in the vicinity, and Michelangelo had long ago memorized the schedules of the gardeners. By the time he snuck there, it was nearing sunset, and so, with their jobs done for the day,t here would be no one to interrupt Mikey until tomorrow morning.

Settling in on a ledge with a sigh, he surveyed the cityscape around him. It would be a while, several hours probably, until his disappearance would be discovered. He'd go back before then, so as not to worry any of his family.

But for now, right now, he'd stay here, indulging in some reflective alone time. An act that would have all his brothers in an uproar, sure he would be sick to be so calm willingly.

That was the annoying part, really. That nothing he said was ever taken seriously by his brothers. Most of the time it wasn't meant to, but…what would happen if their lives depended on it? They hadn't listened to him before on things that were right….what would happen if they didn't believe him about something that would really threaten their lives? "_Oh yes, Mikey, sure there's a monster behind us. Stop joking around and paying attention!_"

It was his fault, for cultivating the jokester attitude. But he'd only done it for his brothers. He had tuned up his natural bright nature, turned everything into a joke, so that they'd survive life sane and able to smile.

But…at what cost had his brother's sanity come at? Was his own self and sanity the price to be paid for the well-being of his brothers? Would he always have to continue hiding behind a smile, just to keep them happy?

Sometimes, Michelangelo wished that he wasn't so generous, that he had loved his brothers a little less. He wanted to be _himself_, and not some clown, unable to take anything seriously.

But he wanted his brothers happy too. And if he didn't joke around constantly, they would soon lose themselves to their own problems.

Mikey buried his face in his hands and sighed deeply.

It was going to be another long night with no answers again, he could tell.

---

The brooding turtle remained completely unaware of a pair of eyes hiding nearby in the greenery, watching him with speculation and amusement.

Tonight's hunting for prizes to bring to his master would be good.

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	2. Chapter 2

-1------

_There's nothing wrong, but if you close your eyes and think…_

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The sunlight was fading away as Mikey jerked from his brooding thoughts with a small start. It was starting to get cold, and he shouldn't be sitting around in a place where sprinklers would drench him with cold water while standing in cold air when he was mostly cold-blooded - the turtles could regulate their own body temperature only to a certain degree, and it still went up and down with their surroundings, just not as radically as a full reptile.

He didn't need a cold on top of everything else, so he decided it was time to head home. No more angst for him today - he'd wipe it from his mind and just enjoy goofing off. It's what kept him sane - he usually didn't dwell on his thoughts too much. Leave the constant angst for Leo or Raph - Mikey had better things to do with his time than brood endlessly over his feelings.

So he stood and stretched, yawning slightly. How long had he been on the rooftop? The sun was almost gone, and deep shadows were cast over the city. Pretty soon it'd be time for the brother's nightly training run. Well, nightly, so long as someone hadn't screwed up enough to warrant Splinter banning them from going topside.

He turned, then stopped as _something_ crackled through the air - feeling uncannily like lightening, but he couldn't see anything. Before his shocked reflexes could act, he was suddenly pinned down by an invisible force - pushed down so hard on his back his breath left him with an audible "oof!", even with a shell.

Michelangelo struggled vainly for a few moments - how had anything snuck up on him!? He was a ninja! But the invisible bonds were made of invisible steel or something, as he held in place without any sort of give.

An evil, rasping chuckle and a pair of malevolent yellow eyes - both of which told Mikey that whatever had him, it wasn't human - was all that Mikey saw before everything suddenly went dark.

---

"He's late."

Raphael looked with exasperation at the eldest brother. "Look, Leo, we know he's late. You don't have to say it every five damn minutes. We. Know. Already."

The sound of sparks and metal screeching stopped for a moment as Donatello looked up from his latest invention. "Raph does have a point, Leo. We know he's late. The problem is, what are we going to do about it?"

Leonardo sighed, pinching between his eyes with his fingers. He bet normal turtles didn't get stress headaches. "Okay then…we have to go out and look for him. While it's not like Mikey to sneak out without us knowing, he's always been home on time before, sneaking out or not. We should see if we can find out where he went."

Raph stood, pummeling his fist into his palm. "Great! Time for some action. And I am so gonna get Mikey for this. Idiot should know better than going out without telling us first!"

"At least leave some of him left, we need him to cook." Don said mildly, putting up his equipment. "I know I refuse to live the rest of my life off delivery pizza and you two's cooking."

"My cooking is not _that_ bad…" Leo felt he had to protest mildly, even as he strode towards the exit of the lair with purpose.

"Says the guy who burns water and can't even work the toaster." Raph snorted, then dashed forward, running out of the lair. Leo resisted the urge to be childish and stick his tongue out at Raphael. Forget making dinner, the first thing he was doing when they got back was popping some aspirin and meditating for a nice long time. Damn stress headache.

Don watched as he brothers continued out the lair, arguing about food and who was the worse cook. Shrugging, he grabbed a bag of some equipment and ran after them. He could always hold it to them later that he cooked better than both of them combined. Though he could never live up to Mikey's ability with kitchen and larder.

Somehow, the thought of Mikey sent a chill through Don, and he frowned. It _was_ unlike their baby brother to be out so long - even while sulking, he'd never stayed out longer than a few hours, and was always home in time for their training or other things.

He had a gut feeling, a bad one. They had to find Mikey as fast as possible.

Don picked up his pace and ran faster.

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Mikey was aware of two things when he finally woke up again.

One, he hurt. All over.

And two, wherever he was, it wasn't his home…and certainly not Kansas.

He squinted his eyes open, finding himself laying down on an operating table. Strapped down, he amended when he tried to move himself. Although he couldn't see any straps. Great, he'd been kidnapped by alien scientists with cloaking devices or something.

_Might as well enjoy the scenery, _he thought as he looked around. This lab was unlike any he'd ever seen - though the prerequisite Sharp Pointy Instruments Of Experimentation were there, little else looked like a science lab, even an alien one. Arcane scribbles covered nearly every surface, bubbling concoctions decidedly un-scientific looking rested on most of the counters, and various magical paraphernalia was scattered across the room. Mikey felt as if he'd stumbled into some bizarre Merlin-gone-bad fantasy land.

_Well, at least I know it's not Bishop this time round._

No, definitely not Bishop, Mikey realized as the door slid open and in walked an old wizened man, followed by something that looked like a cross between a panther and an alligator. Judging by the yellow eyes glaring at him and the unholy grin that bared far too many teeth, Mikey guessed that's what had captured him.

The man rubbed his hands together, giving his own smile that looked far too much like his pet's for Mikey's comfort. He spoke in a voice that sounded of ash and silt, born of mixing far too many violate mixtures together. His words comforted even less than his voice.

"Now, my strange reptile friend, let's see if you hold any secrets to further my powers."

Somehow, he didn't think that he meant learning all of Mikey's cooking recipes.

The pet-thing grinned again, and raised it's claws, and this time the invisible lightening cracked up again, only painful, and running along Mikey's entire body. He didn't bother trying to hold back the scream - it hurt too much.

"So it hurts you - interesting and promising. The power must be somewhere in your blood…and I fully intend to find out where." With a quick hand gesture, the man stopped the electric pain, then chuckled nastily as he held up something that glinted in the light. Brightly and sharply.

Mikey had a feeling he wasn't going to stop screaming anytime soon.

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End file.
